Airline provided communication devices, specifically telephones, are well established conveniences offered on a majority of commercial aircraft. The utilization of these communication devices typically involves the passengers purchasing an allotment of time and placing a call from a telephone located in their immediate area. Advantageously, airliners have typically mounted such telephones in the seatback of one seat in each row of the row of seats so that the telephones are accessible to all of the passengers in the row of seats immediately behind the seatback with the telephone. These telephones are connected to a terminal located on a telephone cradle and further to a transmitter device at a remote location of the aircraft. Such a system allows multiple telephone systems to be connected to one or more transmitter devices so that numerous users can communicate with other communications devices outside the aircraft through means such as by satellite communication links.
Recently, technology has provided numerous communication devices, other then telephones, which allows a user to send and receive information, such as e-mail. Typically, this method for data transmission amounts to the utilization of either a local area network (LAN) or the Internet. Such communication devices include desktops, laptops and handheld computers which require a link between the communication device and a transmitter device. With the increased use of laptops and handheld computers and the ability to transport these small computers, terminals are now being installed in numerous places, both private and public, to allow and encourage utilization of e-mail and the Internet.
With this continual adaptation for the computer age, airlines are configuring and modifying aircraft with terminals for these small, portable communication devices. However, the pace of these modifications has been slow due to the high cost of installation and the down time required to make such modifications to an aircraft. The process requires installation of additional terminals, with associated electrical cabling and connection terminals, for the connection of these personal communication devices.
Thus, there is a need for a low cost modification to an existing telephone system used on aircraft to allow mobile transmitting devices to be used. Moreover there is a need for a modification to the existing telephone systems used, on present day aircraft, to allow users the ability to send and retrieve information via their personal communication devices.